Tom Stewart, a five-time All Australian defender, may move into the midfield for GEELONG as they look to bounce
back following missing the finals the previous year.
The possibility of a successful Stewart trade, which will probably be put to the test in preseason games, excites the
Cats.
James Kelly, the assistant coach for the Cats, stated on Tuesday, “I would love to see it.”
“I’ve coached the backline for a good amount of time, so it might seem strange for me to argue that Tom shouldn’t be
there.
However, I believe it will only help the team.
“He’s big, he’s fit, he’s powerful.”It would be difficult to defend, I believe, if you could somehow create him and
captain Pat Dangerfield being near the ball at the same time.”
Last year, Stewart took up his second club best-and-fairest award after a string of injuries caused the Cats—who had
won the 2022 premiership—to drop to 10th place.
Prominent player Cam Guthrie was on the long injured list; he played in six games before missing the remainder of
the season due to foot surgery.
Nonetheless, the 31-year-old’s inventiveness has shown during Geelong’s preseason.
“He looks really good – he’s unbelievably professional, unbelievably diligent,” Kelly stated.
“He had some time away at the end of last year and has come back just a really happy person and ready to train.”He
had a bothersome injury that he was unable to overcome, making it an incredibly difficult year for him.
“There was a time there where he might have got back and that’s the sort of the worst time to be in as a player, when
you’re in sort of flux.”
Guthrie was one of several Geelong players who, despite missing the playoffs, recovered from injuries over the
extended pre-season.
“Last year didn’t finish the way we wanted it to finish,” Kelly stated.
“But the benefit of that is we have had a really long pre-season, longer than we’ve had for the previous four or five
years.”Additionally, a number of our players have returned recently and put in a lot of work.
“You never want to say that, we have always wanted to bat that deep in finals, that’s always our aim.”But that’s the
advantage for us in terms of how we can recover by 2024.”
